In the days after Sunday’s morbid car biker chase which saw one man permanently paralyzed and another man, Alexian Lien and his family harassed, public outrage has ensued.

Forced to react to the outrage and the public’s disdain with what it considers lawless behavior by bikers, the Manhattan’s DA office has been put into an unenviable position of decoding who to charge and how to react to the fracas at hand.

With two bikers now in front of law makers attention, Christopher Cruz (who today made bail after being charged with reckless driving and unlawful imprisonment) and that of Allen Edwards who yesterday turned himself in.

Yet what was most surprising was how the DA’s office decided not to charge (for now they say) Edwards with a single crime even though it has been established he is the biker seen in the horror video trying to smash Alexian Lien’s rear window with his fists where his two year old daughter sat.

Nevertheless the failure to press any charges against Edwards and by extension other members of the bike group has begun to anger the public.

Told the nypostthis morning of the mounting pressure to bring criminal charges against Christopher Cruz who initiated the Sunday’s fiasco when he purposefully braked in front of Alexian Lien’s Range Rover.

Cruz was caught on video allegedly starting the entire incident by brake-checking the victim’s black Range Rover during the Sunday biker rally — supposedly so that his companion bikers could take over the highway.

“We arrested [Cruz] because of pressure from [police brass] to make an arrest in this case,” a second source said.

“It was completely against [the prosecutor’s] judgment. The case is week. We needed much more investigation.”

The DA’s office relented because of pressure from the NYPD and widespread publicity about the case, a second source told The Post.

A statement from the DA’s top trial prosecutor, Karen Friedman-Agnifilo, confirmed that the office was proceeding with caution in building “the strongest cases possible” against the renegade bikers.

“Prematurely charging individuals with low-level crimes does not further the goals of the investigation, and could weaken the cases we expect to bring against the perpetrators of serious crimes,”

Which is to say although there is some political will to bring thuggery to account, authorities are flummoxed as to how they can necessarily legally prove their case, never mind the video that shows a horror at real time play.

What’s also disturbing is the authorities stance on pack biker mentality.

According to a source at the NYPD contacted by the Post, the department has a laissez-faire policyabout group motorcycle rides in general, opting not to risk hurting bystanders or the motorcyclists themselves by pursuing. “The people who are doing this aren’t stopping when police try to pull them over,” the source said.

Which posits the question, can we necessarily expect a new approach by authorities in countering against aggressive biker mentality and what can we expect going forward with the current Alexian Lien fracas and the public’s all round disgust?

TRENDING TODAY

It is YOU who displays an ignorance of both the law and its application to this case.

1) A motor vehicle is just as much a deadly weapon as a gun when it’s used to injure or kill. That’s established law – it’s called vehicular homicide.

2) Even if the bikers were damaging Lien’s property (his car), that, in itself, does NOT constitute a threat to life and limb.

3) The test of the legal use of lethal force in self-defense is NOT whether a panicked person believed themselves to be in danger but whether a REASONABLE person would have so believed.

4) There is nothing “sanctimonious” about stating an objective fact: that the behavior of the bikers, while certainly frightening, did not objectively rise to imminent danger of death or great bodily harm until AFTER Lien almost killed a biker and the others sought revenge.

guyjones

Your knowledge of the law is misguided, severely so. You’ve stated the correct principle, but, without correctly applying it to the facts at hand. First off, if, hypothetically, Lien had used a handgun to shoot one of the bikers after they had attacked his vehicle, MAYBE he would be charged with a crime. But, it would be unlikely, because a convincing argument can be made that, with a marauding twenty-strong band of aggressive bikers attacking your car, penning it in and preventing your escape, a reasonable person would have been in fear of his life, and that of his family, in that situation. Here, Lien may have panicked in running over the biker, but, it wouldn’t qualify as using a “deadly weapon” in self-defense, for the obvious reason that Lien was attempting to escape from a dangerous situation. Lastly, how do you sanctimoniously and definitively state that, when Lien drove away from the fracas, neither he nor his wife were in imminent danger? The video evidence and common sense suggest otherwise. To posit that you know exactly what his mindset was at that moment is absurd and the height of arrogance.

guyjones

Because, under both the law and any standard of common sense, he acted as a “reasonable person” would have in the same situation — his car being surrounded by aggressive bikers who penned him in and prevented his ability to drive safely, fearing for his own safety and that of his family, he tried to escape the situation and was attacked Maybe he panicked, but, even if he did, he’s still not at fault, because his mindset was reasonably that of a family man in fear from a gang of marauding nutjobs. That;s why he has an ironclad defense against civil liability, and it’s why he won’t be charged with any crime.

guyjones

“the department has a laissez-faire policy about group motorcycle rides in general, opting not to risk hurting bystanders or the motorcyclists themselves by pursuing”
——–

well, it’s time for NYPD to adopt a more serious approach to these pukes. The department treats the bikers with kid gloves, the bikers get the message that they are untouchable and can act like maniacs on the highway, doing whatever the hell they want, anarchy is the predictable result and innocent people are put at risk. Stop appeasing these thugs, and protect the public…not really that complicated, is it?

Really, is NYPD truly surprised that when you gives thugs a wide leash, they take advantage?

Frank Burns

Because he’s not a less-than-worthless piece of filth terrorizing a young couple with their two-year-old child after having caused a minor “accident” with his own moronic, aggressive, and illegal actions. Also because, as Shannon has already indicated, self-defense is still not a crime, no matter how often you idiots try to make it one.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other posers.

beancrisp

FACT: The biker thugs were 100% in the wrong.
FACT: The honorable gentleman driving the SUV was 100% in the right.

Robert Riversong

Self-defense with lethal force is allowed ONLY when there is a REASONABLE fear of imminent death or great bodily harm, not just fear of possible future outcomes.

At the moment Lien nearly killed a man, neither he nor his family were demonstrably in imminent danger.

yellow__man

Hey, maybe he shouldn’t have a) cut in front of the SUV and b) let off the throttle when he did so closely to the SUV that he just cut off.

Jim Mason

It’s all the Grand Theft Auto playing. Alexian would have only garnered one star in the game for that maneuver, hardly maniac material!

Jim Mason

That’s true, you do decelerate very quickly by downshifting. He didn’t down shift though. From what I could tell in the video it just looked like letting out throttle.

x z

Your standard of maniac is pretty high.

LDV

No, The question is. IF Alexian Lien was a murderer and “maniac” on the road, why did he just run over 3 bikes and ONE person? Why didn’t he plow through more of them when he took off? You can clearly see on the video, after crushing 3 bikes, Mr Lien drives through a narrow opening in the crowd of bikers, MISSING MANY MORE OF THEM. How can people be so blind to this?

LDV

You decelerate very quickly by down shifting. Without ever needing to use the brakes.

I rode a crotch rocket in my younger days and I can honestly say that I could slow down pretty fast using only one hand. depending on my speed (50-) I could brake in a straight line with only one hand. this guy cut off the suv by jumping into the lane in front of him and then crammed his brakes. this was a targeted attack for what ever reason imnsho!! cruz was trying to stop that suv and this is what happens. a guy in fear for his family did what he thought he should have to try to get away from them.

Jim Mason

Actually, I ride motorcycles. I have an ’04 Shadow Sabre currently. You are the one who knows nothing about motorcycles, or brake checks.

First, he didn’t brake there, he just let out his throttle. On a motorcycle, at speed and depending on where you are in the gear, you will decelerate relatively quickly without touching your brake. Any real hard braking done on a bike would require both hands on the grips and facing forward, you certainly couldn’t do it one handed looking backward. If he braked at all, he lightly touched them.

The SUV driver could have easily slowed down as quickly as he was, his deceleration was no where near extreme enough to make that an unavoidable collision.

If he had actually brake checked, that collision would have been violent and would have happened in a quarter second from initiation to end at most, not the slow crawl which occurs in the video.

Tom Johnson

You know nothing about motorcycles…. the front brake is on the right side of the handlebar (the side that his hand was still on) and the back brake is on the right side foot peg. That is how you can brake check with one hand he was looking back so he could get as close to the suv as possible.

Jim Mason

I am still trying to figure out how in the holy hell that was a brake check. How can someone on a motorcycle slow down faster than a car when riding one handed and looking over his shoulder?

Letting out your throttle and slowing down is not brake checking someone.

About

I think the idea to start “Scallywag and Vagabond.” (SCV) originates from my myriad background and the many years I have spent in preferred cafes and brasseries extolling the virtues and subtle intricacies of ‘being’ as the Beaujolais ran, the cigarette wafted and the gentleman to my side pontificated while spraying himself with a deftly tied cravat and sun crested idolatry.’

I grew up in Australia where as a young man one was obliged to become a hero of sorts. A master swimmer, fighter of causes, ideals and disheveled denizen of aesthetics, and more often a carefree ‘larrikin’ who would occasionally poke his sun bronzed nose at authority and convention Read More